GeoffShackelford.com

When you realize that a golf club positions the player’s hands 40 inches, more or less, from a ball 1.68 inches in diameter that must be hit precisely after a swing that may take the clubhead on a round trip of as much as 26 or 27 feet, you become aware of the importance of using clubs conforming correctly to your requirements. TOMMY ARMOUR

It's a fine event and all but you know I think it's absurd that a 16-player silly season event can receive world ranking points and impact the fields of major championship. Some of the top five clearly benefitted, including Graeme McDowell, who is one week away from a top 50 year end finish and invite to the Masters.

A shame the World Cup didnt' get much attention but Sean Martin does offer this post on the Molinari brothers and their impressive win.

And my head is still spinning from Nick Watney and John Merrick'sfinal-round,10-under-par ALTERNATE SHOT 62 to finish at -20-under and tie for seventh. Needless to say that was a tournament record for the grueling final round format.

Garry Smitsreminds us that it wasn't long ago the U.S. sent its top players to the World Cup, something I thought about while watching round 1 and noticing that most other countries sent high-profile teams (nothing against Nick Watney and John Merrick, fine Americans they are).

Yesterday I notedDoug Barron's media mini-crusade and the ramifications for the PGA Tour in not responding. The talk continued today with a new piece filed by Tim Rosaforte, who addresses the miraculous coincidence that Barron, in a dispute with the tour over his condition, just happened to be tested the one week he got into a PGA Tour event.

There was much kvetching about the lack of Orlando Sentinel coverage for the Children's Miracle Network event at Disney World, but the real story was in PGATour.com's odd choice not to send someone to the final tour event of the year. Instead they posted AP game stories and a live blog, yet that wasn't enough when there are so many intriguing storylines like finalization of the top 125 and determination of tour cards for the following year. Inevitably great storylines develop and the web becomes a prime source for family, friends, acquaintances and former pro-am partners to see how their horses are doing.

It's also disconcerting to see such coverage when the event is played in the same state as tour headquarters and where the sponsor is propping up a long time event popular with players.

Thankfully, we got compelling accounts of the final day's play and money list scenarios from Steve Elling (here), Bob Harig (here) and Sean Martin (here).

I know, those three probably did the job better than PGATour.com would when their writers file in fear of little men with a red pen scribbling away edgier details. But with media consolidation the tour's own site often becomes a primary source of news. How can they be trusted when they aren't even giving an important event serious coverage? (Not to mention the decision not to post a story about Doug Barron's lawsuit).

Most of all, what does the lack of coverage say about the home office's view of the Fall Finish and the event at Disney?

When Zenyattaproved Saturday that she's the Tiger Woods of race horses, it was only natural to expect Tiger to stop toying with the elite HSBC Champions field and put them away with a trademark rise-to-the-occasion finish.

"There's certainly a lot of people out there," said Woods, after shooting a five-under-par 67 to stand three shots behind the early leader, American Nick Watney. "There was a lot of people ... moving and things. We had to stay focused. I think it's a disadvantage because there are so many people with cameras here. The other groups probably don't have to deal with it as much as we do."

Asher Wildmanreports that Rickie Fowler and Jamie Lovemark'sgreat play at the Frys.com Open had the elite college field at Isleworth thinking they are all a lot better than they are and coaches thinking they were making a difference.

It's about 1:20 into this PGATour.com recap of the Frys.com Open: I just want to know what grooves were in the wedge that refused to let Jamie Lovemark's Nike sink into the water during a sudden death playoff.

Stephanie Weicaught up withKerr, who is a Liberty National member and not a fan of the criticism issued by players. I can't wait until she plays an LPGA event at Industry Hills here in So Cal (at least it's rumored to be hosting the new tournament in 2010). It makes Liberty National look like the Old Course.

Instagram

RIP His Ownself, Dan Jenkins. The best sportswriter ever. Not often do you get to hang out with your hero, but I did four times a year and consider myself one lucky SOB! Thanks for all the laughs and support over the years, press rooms and media hotel bars will never be the same.

Lefty! @djohnsonpga has a good move left or righthanded

90 years ago at Riviera’s first LA Open the press worked from the clubhouse patio using a telescope and binoculars. This week the @genesisopen media center was a massive operation in between holes 1 & 2 with WiFi, a barista, interview room, TV’s and ShotLink data at our fingertips. Thank you to the staff, volunteers @tgrliveevents @genesis_usa, Brenner-Zwikel team and @pgatour for another great week at Riviera during the 2019 Genesis Open won by J.B. Holmes.